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Encounter of the First Kind
The remote-controlled drone appeared out of a slot in the wall, buzzing merrily towards a table in the back of the room. A mechanical claw hung from its underside by a short chain, gripping a stack of papers tightly. It hovered over the table, and with one final buzz, opened its claw to drop the stack onto the tabletop. It spun in a semi-circle, and headed back to the slot in the wall. Without any warning whatsoever, a pair of hands reached up towards is, a thin metal stick in one, and jammed the stick into one of the drone's rotors. It stopped abruptly in midair and fell. The same pair of hands caught it, and tore its casing open, ripping them otor controls out and rendering the drone unable to fly. The camera was turned around to face the middle-aged man with brown hair and furious eyes. "Who's laughing now?" he asked mockingly, smiling with triumpth at the lenses if the optical device. "Whoever you are, you're not giving me anymore paperwork." The red LED next to the camera blinked once, and switched off. The man tore at another panel on the drone, which fell apart to reveal a microphone and speaker. "I know you can hear me. Who are you?" In the next few moments, his face and hands were affected by a burning sensation, from the shrapnel that sliced at them. He jumped back, dropping the drone that had just self-destructed. "Shit!" A small glass cylinder rolled out of the wreckage, relatively unharmed; it came to rest at a table leg. He picked it up and stared; a roll of small paper was suspended inside the container. The man brought the object down on a table edge hard, shattering the glass and allowing the paper to drift onto the floor. On the paper read: Good job, Agent. Please report to the eleventh floor auditorium for your mission briefing. He stared at the words in disbelief; was this some kind of joke? Surely nobody could have expected him to try and catch the drone, so how...? "You better do what the paper says, Stagner," came a voice from the wreck of the drone. Miraculously, upon inspection, the speaker had not even been scratched by the explosion. Not that he cared anymore; he knew that voice. It was time for some payback. The auditorium was just down a flight of stairs from his floor, where the Agents usually had their first briefings for mjor missions. Today, it was empty, except for the blonde man in glasses holding a cup of coffee behind the podium. "Halifax!" shouted Stagner, grabbing the man's throat and pushing hm against the back wall. "I...fucking...hate...you!" he screamed between punches to the man's face. And then he was pulled off the techie by a pair of strong arms, rotated to face a man with silver hair. And eyes. "Mind to tell me what the problem is, Sebastian?" A look of shock passed across the Agent's face, and then he regained composure. "How long has he been sending me his paperwork, sir?" The Director let go of Sebastian and scowled at Halifax, who put on a smile. "Could you explain, Leo?" He gave Sebastian an acess card. "Wait for me in the meeting room, third floor." he Agent scrambled away as Halifax was sentenced to janitorial duty for a week, and possibly, just possibly, made to do all of Sebastian's work. ---- "You're lying." "I'm not," protested Doctor Yeller in her annoying Scottish accent, brushing her hair out of her face. "The Director supports me. Don't you, sir?" James nodded in agreement. "We've got Taskforce AT-6 on standby." Sebastian held up a hand. "Doesn't this go against everything we get taught in orientation? And all those physics classes? A universe can't just adjust its frequency constantly." "This one's doing it right now." Doctor Yeller handed him a tablet, whoched showed a series of numbers that should have been constant changing every second. Sebastian's eyes darted back and forth between the screen and the sensor that was suspended in the air, half-disappearing into another universe. "And what do you want me to do, go into thisp otentially dangerous world and establish a link? Do you have any idea what might be in there?" "Actually, yes." James activated the intercom on the wall. "Come in." A door opened on the other side of the room, and six figures stepped in; four men and two women. Their apparent leader stepped up to Sebastian, their noses mere milimeters apart, and looked him in the eye. "Seb, this is Lieutenant Damien Garrand, head of AT-6. Lieutenant, this is Agent Sebastian Stagner, who will be accompanying your team to the universe." The frown on the soldier's face slowly eased into a smile, and he laughed. It was a bellowing kind of laugh, from a man full of strength and experienced. "Good to meet you, Agent." He extended a hand, which Sebastian took. It was coarse, and the grip was one of iron. "You can call me Seb." He let go of the lieutenant's hand, trying not to massage it. "I've just been informed of this venture literally minutes ago-" he shot an angry look at James, who chuckled "-so care to fill me in?" ---- The first dive was always the hardest. For someone who had done no more than three inter-universal dives, Sebastian Stagner saw that Lt. Garrand was holding pretty well. Where most people would either vomit or have a panic attack, he merely gritted his teeth and rode the resonance waves, into the blue that was the space between universes. All seven were then out onto a vast expanse of sand, stretching as far as the eye could see. Green cactus dotted the landscape, in contrast to the bleak tan. A cube launched out of the unstable portal behind them, narrowly missing Sebastian's head and landing in the sand. A lone lizard crawled onto it, flicking its tongue, and then darting off into the distance. Lt. Garrand tapped a button on the cube. "Omega Command, this is AT-6 Leader, do you copy?" "Yes, lieutenant, I get you-" The rest of the message dissolved into crackling, much like radio interference, before cutting off completely. A member of the team knelt down and began adjusting the dials on the cube, to no avail. For now, they were on their own. "Lieutenant!" the team scout called. What was his name...? Jeffrey, Jerry or something. Both Sebastian amd Garrand looked in the direction he was pointing in, and sure enough, there were two figures. Human, presumably. "Hello!" Sebastian hailed, a hand on his pistol's grip. "Excuse me!" The figure turned. "Oh my god," whispered Garrand, lifting his gun. "Defensive formation!" The screeching began, as the figures rushed them from every direction - some had been hiding behind rocks, and some covered in sand. The gunfire was deafening, even in an open space. Sebastian drew his pistol, aimed at the closest zombie and pulled the trigger.